Cribl vs Security Onion comparison

Cribl and Security Onion Solutions, LLC are both solutions in the Log Management category. Cribl is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6, while Security Onion Solutions, LLC is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.5. Cribl holds a 2.6% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Security Onion Solutions, LLC’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cribl users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Security Onion Solutions, LLC users who would recommend it.

Cribl

Read 31 Cribl reviews

15,761 Views
8,196 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Security Onion

Read 3 Security Onion reviews

8,105 Views
6,889 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Cribl

Security Onion

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Cribl and Security Onion compete in data management and security. Cribl holds an advantage due to its robust feature set and preferred pricing and support, while Security Onion stands out for its comprehensive security focus and features.

Features: Cribl provides flexibility in data processing and routing, valuable data streaming capabilities, and effective observability pipelines. It also offers strong customization options and easy integration with existing infrastructures. Security Onion is strong in security monitoring and threat detection, ideal for cybersecurity needs with its effective security focus.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cribl's deployment is noted for its simplicity and swift integration, offering comprehensive support and guided assistance. Security Onion offers robust tools but has a more complex deployment process that requires expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Cribl presents a competitive pricing model with flexible licensing and efficient resource management, providing a consistent ROI. Security Onion uses open-source components, potentially reducing initial costs, but may lead to higher operational expenses due to resource needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Cribl vs. Security Onion Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cribl vs. Security Onion

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cribl

Ranking in Log Management

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (9th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (8th), Observability Pipeline Software (1st)

Security Onion

Ranking in Log Management

20th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Cribl is 2.6%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Security Onion is 3.7%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cribl	2.6%
Security Onion	3.7%
Other	93.7%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Aman Verma

Senior Software Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has helped reduce daily log volume significantly and streamline data routing across multiple destinations

Regarding complexity, as I mentioned before, Cribl is very simple to use. When I started 2.5 years ago, it was very easy to learn. I learned Cribl within a week, and even though I was a fresher at the time, it was easy to understand and not complex enough that someone would need to spend money on labs. It's not that complex to learn. Regarding cost efficiency, it's very good because nowadays the SIEM tools we use are too expensive on license, and SIEM tools base their license on how many logs get ingested. The unwanted logs, particularly firewall logs, represent a significant portion of unnecessary ingestion. Cribl saves our license by filtering out half of the firewall logs that are unwanted. Our main purpose for using Cribl is to save our license and save money. Currently, everyone is moving toward AI agents. We currently use regex, and AI agents could help us create those regex patterns to drop events or add raw data to events. Currently, we sit down, review the logs, and create regex patterns manually, which can be time-consuming. An AI agent could reduce this time. I read some articles indicating that Cribl Cloud has started using AI and considering MCPs and model context, but I'm not certain how far along they are. If Cribl asked me what they could improve, that would be my suggestion. The support is very good, and I had a few issues with Cribl where I raised support cases and received good responses, which is better than the quick response I didn't get from other SIEM tools and vendor tools I use. Compared to other SIEM tools, Cribl is cheaper than Splunk and DataDogs. However, it's still a bit expensive from my point of view, though I won't call it expensive. Overall, I think 99% of companies use Cribl before their SIEM tools, and compared to SIEM tools, Cribl is cheaper. Companies can use any SIEM tool such as Google, Splunk, or Cisco, and Cribl is cheaper than those SIEM tools. They might have a slight chance to reduce costs further, but I'm not the correct person to evaluate that since I'm more focused on the operational side. Regarding training, it was quite easy to grasp. It took me almost a week to understand the basic functionalities and what Cribl does. Getting more expertise took additional time, but basic functionalities and understanding what Cribl does took around four to five days. One point I want to mention is that Cribl could improve their labs or training materials in their Cribl Cloud or whatever portal they have.

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Anish Bajracharya

Postgraduate at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides good threat hunting by finding infected ports, but its initial setup is difficult

The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports. I have used the Squert tool within Security Onion the most for threat hunting The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult. I have been using Security Onion for one year.…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The feature I appreciate most about Cribl is the interface and how you're able to interact with the data, see the data both live on the ingest side as well as on the side where it goes out to the destination, which is a feature that was lacking in the previous solution I was using."

"What I appreciate the most about Cribl is the free training, the free access to all the training, and how easy it is to learn it."

"Cribl's interface is user-friendly and easy to learn, making it simple to teach new users how to use it."

"There are no complaints, but it has been a very good experience using Cribl."

"Cribl definitely helps with the complexity because you don't have to push for deployment—they provide the interface where you can mimic what the output will look like, and you can see that in real time when setting up the Cribl configuration, which definitely helps considerably."

"My favorite feature of Cribl is just how easy it makes working with the data; it's always been a pain point for us with other solutions, just taking our raw data from the source, transforming and manipulating it into what we need on the SIM side."

"When it comes to the product's installation phase, it is not tough for people who have good knowledge...The tool is worth the investment."

"What we've seen is really an overall reduction of just shy of 40% in our ingest into our SIM platform versus prior to having Cribl, and those ingest costs have basically canceled out the pricing of Cribl licensing for us based on the volume of data that we have."

More Cribl pros

"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."

"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."

"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."

Cons

"Optimizing CPU utilization on the edge side is something that could be improved; we see, particularly on older hardware and older OSes, Cribl Edge service can eat up quite a bit of CPU resources compared to some other products we've used in the past, indicating there's room for improvement."

"Cribl could be improved by some UI tweaks and some usability tweaks, mostly centered around error troubleshooting for large volumes of Edge nodes."

"We encountered some issues with the syslog data stream, particularly with handling large databases and extensive data logs."

"Currently, Cribl Search is dedicated to one bucket at a time in the case of S3 buckets. The ability to search for multiple buckets would be awesome."

"However, the endpoint plug-in tool can use some refinement, as it tends to hit system resources and can sometimes be detrimental to systems to the point where it must be turned off and a scan restarted when a user is offline."

"There have been several administrative issues. Another point is that the browsing functions aren't very intuitive."

"Cribl should consider adding more features that are applicable to smaller firms, allowing broader access to their data migration through Cribl."

"Cribl doesn't have as many packs available"

More Cribl cons

"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."

"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."

"The product is not easy to learn."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would not say it is a cheaply priced tool as it has been doing wonders in the market. The tool has been budget-friendly for organizations."

"The product pricing is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"Security Onion is an open-source solution."

"It is an open-source solution."

"Security Onion is a free solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

University

12%

Government

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	18

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cribl?

I'm not sure of Cribl pricing because it has been procured as a package by our client, and we are not exposed to or do not have an idea of how much they have spent to get a license from Cribl. But ...

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What needs improvement with Cribl?

I am not in a position to comment on how Cribl could be improved or enhanced because it is a good tool, and I have only used a small part of the entire Cribl product. As of now I am pretty happy wi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cribl?

My usual use cases for Cribl involve collecting logs from many endpoints, including user activities. We collect logs into either Log Analytical Workspace or Event Hub and redirect to Cribl so that ...

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What do you like most about Security Onion?

The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?

Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Security Onion?

The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cribl

January 2026

Download Cribl product report

Buyer's Guide

Log Management

January 2026

Download Security Onion product report

Overview

Cribl offers advanced data transformation and routing with features such as data reduction, plugin configurations, and log collection within a user-friendly framework supporting various deployments, significantly reducing data volumes and costs.

Cribl is designed to streamline data management, offering real-time data transformation and efficient log management. It supports seamless SIEM migration, enabling organizations to optimize costs associated with platforms like Splunk through data trimming. The capability to handle multiple data destinations and compression eases log control. With flexibility across on-prem, cloud, or hybrid environments, Cribl provides an adaptable interface that facilitates quick data model replication. While it significantly reduces data volumes, enhancing overall efficiency, there are areas for improvement, including compatibility with legacy systems and integration with enterprise products. Organizations can enhance their operational capabilities through certification opportunities and explore added functionalities tailored towards specific industry needs.

What are Cribl's most important features?

Data Transformation: Real-time data routing and transformation for improved efficiency.
Data Reduction: Reduces data volumes, lowering storage and licensing costs.
Routing and Masking: Offers powerful data masking and easy plugin configurations.
Log Collection: Simplifies the log collection process across different environments.
Deployment Flexibility: Supports on-prem, cloud, or hybrid deployments.
Seamless Integration: Facilitates easy migration to SIEMs and various data destinations.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Cost Savings: Reduces licensing costs by trimming unnecessary data.
Enhanced Efficiency: Improves data handling through seamless integration and transformation.
Operational Flexibility: Provides multiple deployment options to suit organizational preferences.
Data Management: Enhances user control over logs with advanced data reduction and compression.
Certification Opportunities: Offers users chances to enhance skills and operational capabilities.

Cribl sees extensive use in industries prioritizing efficient data management and cost optimization. Organizations leverage its capabilities to connect between different data sources, including cloud environments, improving both data handling and storage efficiency. Its customization options appeal to firms needing specific industry compliance and operational enhancements.

Cribl

Security Onion is an open-source Linux distribution for intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. It offers comprehensive solutions for enterprises seeking to enhance their cybersecurity infrastructure.

Security Onion provides a full suite of tools to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats efficiently. As a robust and versatile distribution, it includes capabilities for real-time analysis, network visibility, and threat detection, making it indispensable for security operations centers. Users value this tool for its integration of open-source software with advanced analytics, affording professionals a detailed overview of network traffic and potential intrusions.

What are Security Onion’s most important features?

Intrusion Detection: Utilizes Suricata or Zeek for effective threat monitoring.
Network Security Monitoring: Offers powerful visualization tools for network analysis.
Log Management: Centralizes log collection and analysis.
Comprehensive Dashboards: Provides integrated dashboards for threat visibility.

What benefits or ROI should you look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduced cybersecurity costs due to its open-source nature.
Improved Threat Detection: Enhanced ability to identify and respond to threats quickly.
Integration Capability: Seamless integration with existing security infrastructures.
Scalability: Support for scaling network security operations as needed.

Security Onion finds extensive application in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors, where robust network monitoring is critical. Its ability to integrate with existing security tools makes it a preferred choice for organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture.

Security Onion Solutions, LLC

Buyer's Guide

Cribl vs. Security Onion

December 2025

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